Rai$ing Race raises $50,000 for Calvary Home

Forty-two teams participated in the first annual Rai$ing Race in Anderson’s Amazing Space on Friday & Saturday, August 12 & 13, 2005 which raised more than $50,000 for Calvary Home for Children, according to organizers.

The Metco Motorsports team won the two day event which included a number of local teams. Team Farm Bureau, Randall Johnson and Travis Rankin, finished second, just yards behind the winners.

Friday morning the excitement at the Anderson Civic Center could hardly be contained as participants, volunteers and organizers readied for the start of Rai$ing Race.

Reality show celebrities talked with fans and volunteers and had their photos taken between interviews with local media.

Some of the Rai$ing Race contestants took the opportunity to receive tips from the celebrity contestants who participated in the Amazing Race and Survivor reality series.

Three waves of teams with 13 and 14 teams each began the fun filled event at approximately 11:30 a.m. Friday.

Events included opening a clue which led them to the Iva Elementary School where each team read a story to a 3rd grade class before receiving their next clue.

The clue sent them on to other activities which included putting pennies into a roll at People’s Bank in Anderson, finding a certain fish art in downtown Anderson for the next clue, a swim or wheel barrow style race event at the YMCA which was followed by a pit stop at Calvary Home for Children where the first 10 teams were eliminated.

The second leg of the race sent contestants to the Williamston and Belton area. After finding a clue at the Veterans Park, contestants faced a detour at Mineral Spring Park where they found themselves faced with filling a one gallon jug with water from the spring by sucking it through a straw.

They then proceeded to the Historic Williamston Cemetery where they were faced with the challenge of finding the infamous horse head on a tombstone in the graveyard.

The next task was to navigate the corn maze at Callaham’s Orchard in the Cheddar community.

A final pit stop in Anderson saw another 10 teams eliminated, leaving 22 teams remaining as participants finished the first day of competition.

Saturday morning the race began early with teams facing activities throughout the Anderson area including finding a statue to receive a clue, chipping a golf ball onto a green or driving range at Cobbs Glen Country Club, deciding to pitch or squirt in Honea Path where they either pitched horseshoes at the Honea Path Horseshoe Courts or faced the Honea Path Fire Department.

At that point ten more teams were then eliminated.

The remaining teams were then off to find the standpipe in Belton, deciding between Babe Ruth or Arthur Ashe during a detour at the Tennis Center or Sports Plus, and then to Pendleton where they had to rope a steer or find a clue in a horse stall at the Garrison arena. Here 10 more teams were eliminated.

The final leg of competition included finding a clue in a hay stack at Split Creek Farms off Centerville Road, eating barbecue at Ole Country Smokehouse Restaurant or selling at McCauleys Boutique, returning to Williamston to find out which lock a combination opened at Palmetto Middle School football field and finally returning to Kid Venture Playground for the final clue and the end of the Rai$ing Race.

The participating teams had names like Moms for Mazzara, Sheep Gone Baad, Stick & Stuck, Science Guys, PD Chicks, Twin Peaks, Paws for Cause and Awesome Aces just to name a few.

The Finale Celebration was impressive as well. "The Shooting Star Classics (Ray & Deana’s band) performed and were outstanding."

OnSat One had videoed much of the race, and after editing footage on Saturday afternoon, returned to play the days’ events on a screen behind the band during the party. Those attending also enjoyed barbecue and Brewster’s Ice-cream.

The celebrity teams posed for souvenir pictures and there were program books and t-shirts for fans.

Rai$ing Race organizing committee members included organizer Kelly McCorkle; David Meade/The Journal; Renee Tollison; Mayor Phillip Clardy/Town of Williamston; Paul Clem; Anna Hanks; Sam Henderson/Calvary Home for Children; Danette Hanks, Gloria Morris, and Carol Adams.

Over 150 volunteers and sponsors also helped make the event a success.

Proceeds from the event go toward the Leslie Mazzara Cottage, which will be the third in the Calvary Home for Children. Mazzara, a former Miss Williamston, was fatally stabbed along with her roommate November of 2004 in Napa, California. Mazzara was crowned Miss Williamston in 2002 and went on to compete in the Miss South Carolina Pageant along with friend Kelly McCorkle who organized the benefit event.